‘Cause it’s time, it’s time in time with your time
I’ve seen this famous exchange from near the beginning of The Lord of the Rings crop up a lot lately,
‘Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.’
‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.
‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’
JRR Tolkien saw service in WW1. He was posted as a second-lieutenant to the 11th Battalion, The Lancashire Fusiliers. From July onwards his battalion went in and out of the line along the northern sector of the Somme. He occupied front line trenches in Beaumont-Hamel, Serre and the Leipzig Salient. On 28 September they undertook a successful raid against the Pope’s Nose opposite Thiepval and on 21 October helped to capture Regina Trench. In both of these actions, Tolkien served as Battalion Signalling Officer. (information from Imperial War Museum). Like most of that generation, commissioned or not, he had to make that decision what to do with the time given him, and he did.
I was born in 1959 and am in the middle of my 66th spin around the sun. I have not had to make any such decision; I have enjoyed the benefits hard won by previous generations. The world order has been relatively stable despite all the violent clashes and conflicts and horrors of our years: for better or for worse, there were things we could more or less rely on if push came to shove.
It has taken POTUS 47 thirty-nine days to unravel that, probably decisively. Whatever happens now, nothing will be the same. Meantime, men and women in Ukraine are making their decisions every day. Perhaps there’s nothing I can do about it except offer passive support, and I wish it hadn’t happened in my time or my children’s time. But that is not for us to decide.
Is the reaction to 47 and his VP’s trashing of America’s dignity yesterday going to make a difference? Who knows. Lots of condemnation and online reaction, but that don’t butter no mushrooms.
More to come on this subject.
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